This
era was the tail end of the first creative slump on the title. Some
veteran artists came aboard, and when coupled with then-new talent
like Doug Moench and Steve Skeates, helped inch the title back home
toward greatness. Issue 31 is the best issue in the book.

Carlos
Garzon and Frank Bolle turn in some impressive artwork. If you look
at the list above you'll see artists who went on to do some notable
stuff during the Bronze Age over at Marvel, such as Billy Graham
(Luke Cage, Power Man). Others, like Dan Adkins, did a ton of
work for various publishers over the years but have no character or
run that fans identify them with. Jack Sparling is another great who
must have been moonlighting from DC. He did a ton of art for their
'70s Horror titles.

I,
Werewolf by Ken Barr is my favorite in the book, in terms of both
story and art. (In my Cliff Claven voice:) It's a little known
fact that the original title to the Werewolf By Night series
Roy Thomas pitched to Marvel in 1972 was I, Werewolf, but Stan
Lee nixed it. I wonder if Roy was inspired by the title of this
story?

Issue
31's Point of View is one of those cause and effect time
travel stories that I love to wrap my head around. Which is more
responsible for an outcome, the cause or the effect? In this case,
which one came first?

All
house ads and letter pages are included, and they are quaint
snapshots of this bygone era. Of particular interest are the Eerie
Fanfare pages, where fans submitted writing and artwork samples.
One of these samples of artwork was by Greg Theakston and Arvell
Jones, two guys who went on to work in comics. It's very cool to see
that they were once “one of us”.

I
am thrilled to see Dark Horse continue this line of deluxe
hardcovers. They release them far quicker than I can read them, but I
am current on buying them at least. What's another year or two wait
to read 40+ year old comics anyways?

Junk
Food For Thought rating: 3.5 out of 5.

The
OCD zone- These are some nice books. They are presented in the
original magazine dimensions.

Linework
restoration rating: 4.5 out of 5. These are high resolution scans
and are generally excellent. There are one or two pages that look
iffy, but it could be that the copy that they used for this book was
an iffy printing. It happened back then.

Paper
rating: 4.5 out of 5. Thick coated stock with a slight sheen.
Semi-glossy paper is not optimal for black and white material but it
doesn't detract from my enjoyment of the stories.

Binding
rating: 5 out of 5. Superb sewn binding and a casing not glued
square to the spine equals a book that lays flat. I'm happy.